“ THE BAN ON PLASTIC BAGS: A STUDY OF ATTITUDES AND ADAPTATION ACROSS DIFFERENT SOCIO-ECONOMIC SECTIONS IN ISLAMABAD”

Abstract

Despite several threats to the environment one of the major environmental concerns in recent times that has received so much attention is plastic pollution. With time there has been an increase in scientific evidence and media coverage regarding plastic pollution, specifically highlighting the role of plastic bags in polluting the environment. Understanding the severity of the issue, countries like India, Bangladesh, and Japan etc. have tried several policies in their attempt to completely ban or at least reduce the use of plastic bags. Pakistan has also tried to implement such policies, recently, the effort to ban plastic bag was made in 2019 but the problems of such scale not only need a strong commitment from the policy- making side but also require coordinated human behavior. Also, several studies have highlighted individual’s socio- economic status as a determinant of change in human behavior. Therefore, the study aimed to evaluate the status of the plastic bag ban 2019 in the federal capital Islamabad and the relevance of socio-economic factors in determining the attitude change and adaptation in residents of Islamabad focusing on the action content part of the policy. This mixed -method research was conducted with a sample of 372 through surveys and in-depth interviews with respondents from NUST. The data was analyzed through descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression using SPSS and thematic analysis. The findings of the study highlighted that although the socio-economic class is a relevant determinant when it comes to compliance with the plastic bag ban policy but the compliance did not decrease with an increase in socio economic status. Moreover, the results also highlighted lack of information, lack of alternatives, and lack of affordability as a hindrance to change in attitude and adaptation of the respondents towards the policy of plastic bag ban.